This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I'm not sure this will help, but if you go to the 01:24:5 mark on the following video link you will find a discussion of Tysabri antibody testing by those presumably in the know.


http://www.currentcme-ms.com/login.aspx?id=23623


optimist

Optimist,

The web-cast gave some interesting comments on NAB testing. They talked about the fact that the NABs during the trials showed up within the first 3 months of testing and this was the critical period to discover them.

At the same time they said there was no inexpensive, approved test for them but that Biogen was working at licensing with labs a new test that was being developed. They hoped it would be ready by the time large numbers of Tysabri users got to the 3 month period.

Hopefully this will be done because the docs went on to say that high level NABs would make Tysabri quite ineffective and that 6% of the people in the trials ended up with this problem.

Harry

Harry

Thank you! I watched the whole thing. It was interesting to be getting the info at that level, although I admit I did not understand bits here and there. I was surprised so many neuros would come up with different treatments for the same scenario.

I even tried archiving it on dvd because I wanted to watch it again later where I wouldn't have internet access, but only the slide part of the window showed - the little video window in the upper right where the presenters talked remained black on the s-video output the whole time although it displayed on the laptop screen. Oh well.

Financial analysts are predicting the number of patients using Tysabri will fall far below Biogen Idec Inc.'s forecast, following the Cambridge biotech company's disclosure last week that two more patients using the multiple sclerosis drug contracted a potentially fatal brain disease. In an investor note yesterday, Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Schoenebaum said even under his best scenario, Tysabri will only have about 75,000 users by 2013, far short of the company's goal of 100,000 by 2010. In a more conservative scenario, Schoenebaum predicts just 56,000 patients will use the drug by 2013. And in the worst case, he said, the drug could get pulled from the market if more safety problems emerge.
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brukewilliams

Massachusetts Drug Treatment